We couldn’t have seen it all coming. No way could we see it all, as we sat on New York front stoops and drank Rheingold and Knickerbocker and stared above at black clouds of the Cold War and went through air raid drills and sat back as Kennedy and Khrushchev... Continue reading

“Jesus, will you just find a station and leave it there?!?” Dean chuckled at Annie as she turned the dial on their transistor. The signal went from buzzing static to squealing to fuzzy talk to clear music as Annie tried to find a popular station and Dean stuck a finger... Continue reading

“Shoulda seen them destroyers they use’ta build here,” the old timer said, pointing across the vast expanse of still, silent cranes, smoke stacks and hangers that formerly comprised the Navy Yard. “You wouldn’t beLIEVE how big them things was! And how proud we was to build ‘em!” He wore a... Continue reading

August, 10, 1942 Catching up after a long absence. We are training for this war business. Don't know how I feel about it, especially since I know so little. Went into town today to the picture show and tried to relax, but hard to do. Writing letters home all day.... Continue reading

You had to go by train. Night was good, but afternoon was best: an old time matinee when you could really SEE the building as your trolley got closer. Green Line to North Station on the Lechemere line, front car of the trolley on the right-hand-side, and you tried to... Continue reading

There was a backroom that nobody knew about who didn’t belong inside. That’s where the business of Boston really happened. Officially the business of the People of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts took place at 45 School Street in the Old City Hall, but the Realpolitik of the Olde... Continue reading

It was their first time together since leaving the west last August, and they were going to have a grand time of it. Donna and Carol flew from Los Angeles to Atlanta, transferring in St. Louis, by way of TWA Connie. Nancy set out from Tuscaloosa in the ’34 LaSalle... Continue reading

I can see and hear it all yet, like a dreamscape, like it seemed at the time and like it really was. My older brother yells “Come ON, let’s GO!” from the driveway while I struggle to fit the last of my clothes and toys in my nylon carry-all; my... Continue reading

It was everything to belong. To descend the stairs knowing the knock and the passwords, to find a partner to dance with under the soft chandelier glow, to know you were among friends though you were among masquerading strangers. They were also sharing the feeling of being welcome, and even... Continue reading

Pacing before the door, pacing pacing pacing, trying desperately to excise the worry and replace it with positives… she’ll like you! you’ll do fine! …Horace felt about to burst and about to wear out his shoe soles. Ten minutes to go until his date Myrna was due to arrive. Ten... Continue reading

One buck got the entire carload a Saturday night double-feature under the stars. It was sundown and the final rays pierced through the trees and the haze of cigarettes as the biggest screens you could imagine came to life and the features started. And the evenings cooled and sweaters came... Continue reading

And finally, Summer. Memorial Day arrives and the summer spreads out ahead, a vast landscape of verdant promise as far as the minds-eye can see. Beach and breakers, cookouts and cruising…hot fun in the summertime. The sepia of March is gone. No depression anymore. Nights are endless, days are directionless... Continue reading

This is us. This is life, distilled to an irretrievable nanosecond. This is history and passion and the unknowable. This is our life and our lives. What was the old man looking at? What was he thinking? What did he have for dinner that night, and what would he think... Continue reading

﻿It started with papers. Two or three pages gently floating like late spring snow outside my 3rd period algebra class. A couple of minutes later, a full notebook came hurtling down. Then another notebook, then two and three at a time. Then a textbook. Then another, and another. Finally, the... Continue reading

Twilight: solitude in the dusky mist. A billion lights illuminate offices and bars and theater marquees and the paths of Central Park South and the Plaza and dance across the East and the Hudson. Dancing under the lights in the murky humidity of Rockefeller Plaza, meeting under the day-glo stars... Continue reading

“There it is!” Andrew Bretton and his little brother Anthony had ridden their bikes longer than ever before, maybe two miles, to get here. They had heard lots of scary stories about the old hospital from Andrew’s friend Carl. Carl’s parents said that orphans were taken there by nuns and... Continue reading

Secrets and lies. We all lie so well, lie and compartmentalize. Hide the evidence in the closet, tell yourself it’s alright: you pulled it off. Half in, half out, half believing, half wanting to believe. The secrets we keep, closeted and cloistered, all eventually to be uncovered in the light... Continue reading